Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyse trends of childhood unintentional injury death, hospitalisations and practice visits rate among aged 0–14 year olds in Japan.

Method Mortality data of unintentional injuries and the patient survey provided by vital statistics of Japan was used.

Results Under 1 year old, the mortality of unintentional injury death changed from 44.9 per 100 000 populations in 1984 to 13.2 in 2008. The rate for hospitalisations changed from 404 per 100 000 in 1984 to 441 in 2008. The rate for practice visits changed from 27000 per 100 000 in 1984 to 26800 in 2008. Among 1–4 year olds, injury death changed from 20.3 to 3.8. Hospitalisations rate changed from 552 to 423. Practice visits rate changed from 44 400 to 42 850. Among 5–9 year olds, unintentional injury death changed from 9.3 to 2.2. Hospitalisations rate changed from 642 to 397. Practice visits rate changed from 30 700 to 35 600. Among 10–14 year olds, unintentional injury death changed from 5.4 to 1.9. Hospitalisations rate changed from 662 to 505. Practice visits rate changed from 35 500 to 48 000.

Conclusions Mortality of unintentional injury rate decreased over 25 years from 1984 to 2008, but practice visits rate was remained high under 1 and 1–4 year olds, and increased among 5–9 and 10–14 year olds.